Brighouse rail station parking plea to West Yorkshire's mayor
West Yorkshire’s mayor agrees a Calderdale town’s rail station needs more parking support.
Tracy Brabin said an aim is to get commuters onto trains and buses as part of a “park and ride” policy to free up commuting.
That means space for them to park before getting on them, Calderdale councillors heard.
She was responding to a councillor’s concerns about parking at Brighouse Railway Station.
Coun Regan Dickenson (Con, Rastrick) said parking was at a premium, actual capacity had been reduced while some works were being undertaken, and it was a problem.
The new Elland station was anticipated to have around 100 parking spaces, Brighouse was a bigger town with less available, and more were needed to meet demand, bearing in mind three communities around Brighouse could increase in size by a third if all homes included in the council’s Local Plan were built, he said.
“There is land spare on the opposite side of the road which has, as far as I know, no immediate plans for use,” he said.
“I would like to use this opportunity to call upon you to see what you can do to explore whether that land could be taken over by the relevant authorities to develop that into a working car park that reflects the size of the town and the probable use?” he asked.
Mayor Brabin said she would take the issue away and look into it.
“For me, we have a really big focus on park and ride, whether that is bus or rail.
“So it’s really important that at rail stations we have enough parking.
“What’s really important is we don’t want commuters heading into Leeds and then finding it expensive or hard to park.
“What we want is people to be parking on the arterial routes and coming in either by bus, through priority bus gates, or by train.
“So let me look into that, because that’s really important.
“I know it’s a great station and I think it needs that support,” she said.
The West Yorkshire mayor was answering questions while attending a meeting of the full Calderdale Council.